Ideal surfing bodyweight

[bong]

i was wondering if itis better to be heavy or light for surfing.or dose that depend on where you surf and teh power of the waves?is there like a perfect weight for surfing?and how bout tall and short.which is better?

[PapaW]

Realistic it helps to be lean but it also depends on the type of board and how committed you are to the sport.

[bong]

lets say you dedicate your life to it.and you normally ride short boards.wanna surf places like indo,aus,pacific.

[PapaW]

Then if your allready at that stage, bodyweight can't be an issue... Answerd your own question there.

[Squeaky]

in my opinion i'd say the shorter the better coz then u have a lower centre of gravity and so it makes u better balanced, and also possibly the lighter the better, coz if ur heavy u need a certain height/powered wave and if ur a heavy beginner u might not be able 2 catch small waves all that well, especially if ur only learning how 2 paddle and so cant paddle that well, but then again it all depends on the board i spose.

[southcoaster]

im 5.7 and 125 pounds, im a skinny little bast**d!! all pros are short arnt they or somethin?

[k mac]

well iwas out one day and there was a bloke sufing about 8-9ft longboard and he was gigantic i mean huge he was bout 19-20 stone at a guess and he was rippin it up out there he was the best outr there that day ...

[k mac]

well iwas out one day and there was a bloke sufing about 8-9ft longboard and he was gigantic i mean huge he was bout 19-20 stone at a guess and he was rippin it up out there he was the best outr there that day ...

[jonny]

To be a good surfer you need a combination of strength, balance, agility, overall fitness, technique and guts I guess.

Most people will be stronger in some areas than others. I don't really think your height or specific bodyweight matters too much. If you are fit, healthy and strong you're a good way there.

[k mac]

19-20 stone may have been an over exagaration

[Brent]

The answer is simple.

If you are a recreational surfer...like most sports your weight is not an issue, fat-thin you'll enjoy it all the same....because that's who you are physically. Doesn't matter if your a mountain biker, a road cyclist, a climber or whatever...

If you are a serious athlete however...the answer is harder to take. You want to be the lightest you possibly can be - while still maintaining the required muscle mass and physical health to achieve your desired sporting objective. This holds true in almost any sport...road cycling, swimming, mountain biking, competitive running, triathlons, you name it...it's all about aerobic/anerobic fitness and skill. Given two identically "fit" people, with equal mindsets (read the desire to win) and equal skill levels, the more successful athlete will be the lighter of the two. It's simple physics.

[RoxySurf]

Nicely said Brent.

[k mac]

hey brent just somthing for my gcse pe class ,would you say surfing is a more anerobic sport or aerobic ,i was thinking that i would of been slap bang in the middle because it uses both ,say aerobic when paddling for a wave or gettin out back ad for the pop-up and then anerobic for when your on the board what you think but then again is equal time spent on the wave to paddling .

[Brent]

That's a tough call.
Truth is I think it's too hard to nail down into either group. Paddling is an aerobic activity for definite, but it's made harder in that you're using pretty small muscles quite hard (middle & rear delts etc) so they hurt more...even if you're not really going hard. Aggressive paddling & getting nailed under a set while duck-diving to get out the back is an anerobic exercise for sure...abit a lower level one. Paddling for a wave is also an anerobic exercise...it's just that it's so short....like 2-4 seconds worth for most of us. I think its too short an interval to be a proper "interval" and called such.

My question is - if the sport is a good mixture from low level aerobic exercise up to true sprint intervals....how come the worlds best surfers (Slater etc) are so lean & slim? For example, if you do hard short intervals in a gym you will grow muscle mass....not get leaner. I think it's because apart from the exercise of surfing...there is an underlying exercise taking place...that of simply keeping warm with slightly raised aerobic heart rate. Almost all of us surf in cool-cold water so we're exercising just sitting out the back keeping warm.

Sometime soon I'll stick my HR monitor on under my wetsuit when going out for a surf...ironically I've never done it before, it'll be interesting to see what comes out numbers wise, I'll work out for def exactly what's going on out there....I'll post the results.

[k mac]

yeah, i like to hear what the results are when you do test it out with you heart rate monitor , as it happens i was doing tests with a hr monitor on friday at school to find out the effects of training and we had to sprint for 3-4 seconds do some little jumps then hop back and fourth over a bench then then some more little jumps and even after that small amount of excercise my bpm rose from 80-ish to the 100 mark and i didnt feel any diffrence at all which is intrestind because thats not really far of my theretical maxium heart rate of 206 (220 - age) .Also if you were to put on a heart rate monitor while surfing Ibet the readin will be affected by other things such as the sort of adreniline rush you get when you pop-up and feel your self speed down the line as the wave is breakin behind you, also the tempreture may change it too just tryin too keep warm like you said and for your question about why the pro surfers are all lean/slim i think it may be because if you just surfed and not much else your mucsles are always workin with the same resistance your own weight ,and your body will just stay at the same level it is and not reallt excel and make you like arnold swazanneger un less your surfed and did a manual job i;e bricklaying ,woodwork or/and worked out at the gym and folowed a good workout plan ,then again no ones body works the same and will have the same results from somthing , anyways let us know how your little test goes goes and make sure you dont go electrocutin yourself

[Brent]

Ignore that supposed maximal HR thing of 220 minus your age. It's crap.That number was created as a guideline for sedentary people just beginning exercise. Truth is if you are fit & healthy you'll normally easily exceed your supposed limit.
Example. I am 39, 220 minus 39 equals 181. But in reality my maxium is 196 (at the moment). 7 years ago when I was a full time athlete at the tail-end of my career (I was a professional cyclist for 8 years retired end of 1998) my max HR was 209BPM. This was for a very fit 33 year old.

Everybody is different - some people have physically smaller hearts...that "rev" higher to compensate. Some people have large "slow" hearts...all achieves the same objective. I believe (not 100% though) the differences closely follow those generalised different body descriptions called ectomorphic & endomorphic - that's long & slim people as compaired to short & muscular or squat shapes)

The only way to find out your max HR is to do a proper test in a science lab. They are hard and you ladder up your effort, maybe on a treadmill or a stationary bike...go until you spew.... Only then when you know your own bodies max HR can you then work backwards and calculate your anerobic threshold, your aerobic threashold and what level you need to be exercising to burn fat.

220 minus your age was designed so munters didn't die in gyms going hard-out for the first time in their lives...and costing gyms big-time lawyers bills....